Chapter 2
Neraphim was a chaotic tangle of hive spires and streets laden with the wreckage of war. Military and civilian craft were scattered throughout the city. Chunks of buildings fell on occasion as they finally gave way to the brutal punishment of the Ork bombardment and the Planetary Defense Force's fervent actions to defend the planet from the Ork incursions. Now and again fires burned, sending up plumes of ash and toxic fumes from the oils and fuel that burned in destroyed vehicles. Orks and human remains were scattered almost everywhere they looked, and overhead were the sounds of roaring engines and the occasional shots from Ork looters firing their cobbled together weapons into the air and racing through the streets. Elemiah realized that even if they hadn't been quiet, their earlier firefight would likely have gone almost entirely unnoticed anyways. He shook his head and nodded to his Marines.
"We stay together. Keep to cover." He ordered as the Marines jogged throughout the city streets of Neraphim, making their way through the winding, twisting lanes, using the hulks of tanks, speeders, and commercial vehicles for cover.
Trax ran ahead a few dozen meters to scout, at Elemiah's orders.
"Greenskins." Came the warning. The roar of engines followed a second later as the Wartrukk barreled around the corner and veered at dangerously high speeds down the street they were on.
"SCATTER!" Shouted Elemiah, ordering his group to break up even as the Orks, upon finding new quarry, began to fire from the Trukk's pintle mounted shoota. The greenskins whooped and hollered at one another for having found some fighting to do.
His squad broke up in half a dozen directions. He and Wulfgar leapt to the side behind the ruins of a Leman Russ tank that had lost a track and whose turret had been chewed up by Ork fire. The Trukk zipped past their position and pulled a hard turn to come back around on the Marines. Before charging back down the street, however, half a dozen Orks leapt from the back of the vehicle and began firing, charging in a pell mell bloodlust.
Drawing his power sword, Elemiah snapped his thumb to the activation rune and the power sword hummed with life.
"Cover me!" He barked to Wulfgar. The Space Wolf gave a quick nod of his head as he swung out and leveled his plasma cannon.
"TASTE THE FURY OF RUSS!" Wulfgar howled in a canine manner, pulling the trigger as the plasma cannon unleashed a torrent of superheated energy at the charging Orks. Three of them scattered and dropped to the ground. One took the blast full in his chest. There was nothing left but the smoking scraps of what the beast had worn for boots. Elemiah felt the heat through his armor and a moment later, leapt over the small pile of debris that he and Wulfgar had taken cover behind.
"SONS OF THE EMPEROR! CHARGE!" He bellowed over the vox. Trax was right beside him, his chainsword snarling in vicious rage as the Imperial Fist whooped and invoked the name of Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists Chapter. They were joined a moment later by two more Marines, a brother from the Hawk Lords, and one from the White Consuls. The four charged down the remaining five Orks and crashed into them, brute strength colliding with ceramite power armor. As they clashed, a burst of autofire from the Ork Shoota on the Trukk cut through the Ork that squared off against Flavius, the White Consul. A moment later the shells tore through his power armor in a spray of crimson gore.
Elemiah cursed.
"Focus your fire on that Trukk!" He barked the order even as he raised his power sword to ward off a blow from the brutal twisted choppa that his opponent tried to bring down upon his head.
Wulfgar and the others heard the order and bolter fire riddled the side of the truck. The Space Wolf cursed that his plasma cannon required such a long charge time and he howled in impotent rage. Finally the cannon's capacitor was charged and he wheeled out, leveling the plasma cannon at the Trukk. Pulling the trigger on the plasma cannon, he launched another ball of superheated energy at the armored transport vehicle. The plasma impacted and rocked the trukk, a moment later the fuel tank catching fire and blowing the vehicle to pieces.
Wulfgar howled in victory.
Elemiah ducked and rolled to avoid debris from the explosion even as it slammed into the back of his Ork assailant, knocking the creature to the ground.
The Dark Angel scrambled to get up even as the Ork shakily tried to rise from the sudden impact. Without giving up the advantage, Elemiah thrust his power sword through the creature's back, twisting it and killing the monstrosity. His brothers in the Deathwatch moved forward out of cover, firing their weapons at those Orks which were just recovering from the blast of the trukk. Trax and Elemiah and Valentin of the Hawk Lords finished off the remaining Orks in close combat. The Deathwatch took stock of their casualties. Brother Flavius of the White Consuls had fallen and Brother Temujin of the Storm Lords was bleeding from where an Ork round had punched through his chest. He was standing though, the fierce son of Jaghatai Khan refused to let it show that the injury was going to slow him down at all. Apothecary Gellert of the Revilers removed Brother Flavius' geneseed to be returned to his chapter upon completion of the mission. Temujin refused the Apothecary's aid.
"There is no time to take care of our brother as is fit. Divide up his remaining ammunition and let's go." Elemiah ordered grimly. Within moments it had been done, and the Deathwatch resumed their trek to the large obsidian fortress in the distance, being doubly careful. They'd been lucky so far... And now their luck was beginning to catch up with them.
"Brother-Captain." Voxed Trax over the Deathwatch channel.
"Go ahead." Elemiah said, holding up his fist to signal a stop as the group trotted along, Trax well in the lead acting as a scout.
"Sir, there appears to be a PDF supply depot up ahead. No signs of any Ork presence there. Looks as though they've already looted the area and moved on." Trax informed him.
"Hold fast brother. Do not proceed until we are with you." Elemiah ordered.
"Understood Brother-Captain." Trax spoke.
The vox-bead went silent in Elemiah's ear and he waved his men forward. Moving the klick and a half lead that Trax had over the rest of the Deathwatch squadron, they found Trax crouched behind the burnt out wreckage of a Leman Russ battle tank.
"Has there been any change?" Elemiah asked Trax as they regrouped behind the destroyed tank.
"None sir. No activity at all, just as I reported." Trax noted with a shake of his head.
"I want a careful sweep toward the building. Three teams. Trax, you will take brothers Gellert, Temujin, and brother Tavius. Get around the back. On my signal, you'll storm in while the other two teams move in from the front of the depot. Any Orks that might be inside will be surrounded and we can cut them down." Elemiah ordered. The Apothecary and the injured Storm Lord moved with Trax, joined by Tavius, an Ultramarine. "Brother Valentin, you will take brothers Tassos, Rodrigo, and Elysius." He ordered. The Hawk Lord stepped forward, joined a moment later by Tassos of the Iron Hands, Rodrigo of the Crimson Fists, and Elysius, the Salamander, stepped forward and hefted his flamer. "You will come with us. Enter in from the right of the main garage door. Wulfgar? You and Matteo will come with me. We'll cover the left side of the garage door." The Blood Angel and the Space Wolf both nodded and joined Elemiah.
"Into position brothers." Elemiah ordered and the three squads set out surrounding the PDF depot. Trax and Valentin moved their squads into position and after a few more moments, each voxed their readiness, and their icons flashed on Elemiah's display.
"Mark!" Elemiah barked into the vox.
Swinging around, Elemiah brought his bulk against the thin, heavily damaged metal door that covered the vehicle entrance. Moving through the massive hole in the door on the left, Valentin did the same on the right as Trax and his group broke in through the back. The Marines were met with shrieks and a shout of alarm. Figures huddled about in the center of the room writhed in panic. Wulfgar's plasma cannon hummed as the capacitor charged. Something was off. As Elemiah's gaze adjusted over the course of a few seconds to the extreme darkness, a lump caught in his throat.
"STAND DOWN!" He shouted the order. Trax and Valentin had been charging forward, chainswords snarling angrily. At the order, both Marines backed off, and Elemiah's hearing registered the lowered pitch of Wulfgar's capacitor as he let the plasma cannon cool off from its charge. Elemiah and his Deathwatch Marines stepped forward as they saw the forms of a dozen or so humans. Dressed mostly in rags, one or two older men in what appeared to be ratty, tattered PDF uniforms gripping crude clubs served as the group's only protection.
"Emperor's Grace." Tavius muttered in shock at the discovery.
"Y-you... You're... You're Space Marines." Said a woman, stepping away from the others. Her blond hair was matted and filthy, her face smudged with dirt and grease from sleeping amongst the ruins of the PDF depot and hiding from the Orks. An electoo glittered dimly over her cheek. Some form of gang symbol, Elemiah guessed. "Does... Does that mean our prayers have been answered? You're here to save us?" She asked, her eyes brimming with a light that Elemiah knew in his heart he could not bear to extinguish.
As she stepped closer, Elemiah was struck dumb, watching her as her hands moved over the Imperial Aquila on his breastplate with a sort of reverence.
"The Emperor protects." She said softly as she looked up at him. "He has sent his angels to protect us." She declared, as if the entire matter was decided. There was no room for argument. There was no room for questioning, there was only the truth of her words. Her eyes, filled with hope, and her voice quivering with faith, she believed that the Deathwatch was there to save them. Was there to search for survivors and protect their small band of survivors. They might even be the only humans left on all of Neraphim.
None of the Deathwatch said a word, looking to Elemiah for his reaction. The Dark Angel looked down at this woman, this human woman that had such faith that they were here for her. Did she not know that the Emperor's work sometimes demanded sacrifice? The entire mission they were on would be jeopardized by the presence of these humans. He couldn't bring them. He had to deny her. He had to tell her that the Emperor did protect, but that the Emperor would not be protecting them, not through the auspices of Brother-Captain Elemiah and his Deathwatch Marines. He knew he could not jeopardize the mission for them.
But when he opened his mouth to speak, the only words that passed Elemiah's lips were a soft agreement. "Yes... The Emperor Protects." He told her, laying a large gauntlet on the shoulder of her slight frame. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Brothers. We rest here." Elemiah gave the order. Without another word, the Marines moved to sit amongst the survivors, who eagerly made room for their saviors. Gellert of the Revilers used his skills as an apothecary to check over the conditions of the survivors.
"I am Amarine." The woman who had approached Elemiah introduced herself.
"I am Brother-Captain Elemiah. Of the Dark Angels." He added, realizing that outside of the Imperial military hierarchy there might be those unfamiliar with the heraldic device on his right shoulder.
"A Dark Angel. One of the Emperor's own angels. One to save us." Amarine spoke with a melodic, almost fluid grace to her words that belied their filthy and degraded surroundings.
How could Elemiah tell her that he was not some fictitious guardian angel, but instead one of the Emperor's Angels of Death; one of the Angels of Death which rained from the sky and brought woe and destruction unto the enemies of the Imperium?
With such hope, such light brimming in Amarine's eyes? Elemiah couldn't.